Just before the cascade spread out across the boulder-strewn mouth of the larger valley, the water took one final leap over a slate ledge. Eve wriggled out on the rock to get a look at the camp. She had already decided that Jericho Slater was the first prisoner she should take. It was just a matter of finding out where he was.
A quick look over the ledge told Eve she was lucky not to be a prisoner herself. Slater’s gang was camped about a hundred feet from the waterfall, back in a thick grove of evergreens. Horses were picketed around the meadow. A quick count gave her a total of twenty.
Despair curled blackly in Eve’s bones. Ten men, she might have managed to watch. Even twelve.
But twenty?
There’s no help for it. Grab Slater, cut a deal, and get on with it. No matter how bad it looks for me, what Reno’s facing is worse, trapped in there without light or food or water.
And he never liked the tunnels. He feels the same way about them that I do about those eyebrow trails over slickrock.
I’ve got to get to him soon. I can’t leave him there alone.
Eve refused to think about the possibility that Reno was already dead under tons of rubble, buried as the slave child had been buried, one more sacrifice to the golden tears of the sun god. Eve was certain she would know if he were dead. She would feel it just as surely as she felt her own life now.
Wiping her eyes against her sleeve, she looked again at the camp. A swirl of pale gray caught her attention. Jericho Slater still wore the wrist-length cape of the Confederate army. The white planter’s hat was also familiar; he hadn’t removed it even when he sat at her table to play cards.
I wonder how Slater feels about tunnels. Hope he hates them. Because until Reno is free, Slater is going to be spending a lot of time in the dark.
Smiling grimly, Eve eased back off the slate overlook and into the cover of the trees.
As soon as the green boughs folded around her, a man’s hand shot out and clamped over her mouth. Simultaneously a powerful arm clamped around her waist, pinning her arms to her body. Though she was holding a shotgun, she had no chance to use it.
An instant later Eve was lifted off her feet, helpless but for her wildly kicking feet.
«Slow down, wildcat,» a deep voice said quietly in Eve’s ear. «It’s Caleb Black.»
Eve went still, then looked over her shoulder.
Caleb’s whiskey-colored eyes looked back at her. The warmth she remembered in his eyes was lacking. He looked just like what Reno had once called him, a dark angel of vengeance.
Eve nodded to show that she understood she was safe. Slowly Caleb set her down. When she was standing on her own feet, he jerked his thumb, silently telling Eve to get deeper into cover.
As soon as she did, another man stepped forward. His hair was the same black as Caleb’s, but the resemblance ended there. Caleb’s hair had a slight curl. Wolfe Lonetree’s was straight as a ruler. His eyes were an indigo so dark as to be nearly black. His face showed the high cheekbones of his Cheyenne mother and the sharply defined mouth of his Scots father. Though not as big as Caleb or Reno, Wolfe moved with a physical confidence that was more impressive than size alone would have been.
Caleb’s hands moved in sign talk that was as graceful as it was precise. Wolfe nodded and moved past Eve, touching his dark hat in silent greeting as he did. The hand he lifted to his hat was holding two boxes of shells. His other hand was wrapped around two repeating rifles.
Eve stared for an instant, then eased farther back into the trees, pulled by Caleb’s hand on her arm. As soon as it was safe to speak, she did.
«There was a cave-in. Reno’s trapped. There are two guards at the next cascade.»
Caleb’s eyes narrowed. «Is he alive?»
She nodded, unable to say anything for the fear drawing her throat tight.
«Is he hurt?» Caleb asked.
«I don’t know. I couldn’t get to him.»
«What did he say?»
«Nothing. He couldn’t hear me.»
Caleb didn’t ask how Eve knew Reno was alive. He had seen both the wildness and the soul-deep determination in her eyes.
«I took care of the guards,» Caleb said. «Go back to the marshy area and wait. We’ll be along shortly.»
«But Reno —»
«Go. We can’t do a damn thing for Reno as long as Jericho Slater is settin’ up to shoot us in the back.»
Caleb turned away, then stopped and looked over his shoulder at Eve.
«Rafe Moran is somewhere around here. So if you see a man as big as Reno coming at you, blond hair, easy-moving, with a bullwhip in one hand and a six-gun in the other, don’t shoot him.»
Numbly Eve nodded.
«There’s a pint-sized redhead called Jessi Lonetree about a mile back down the trail,» Caleb continued. «She’s supposed to stay put, but she might take a notion to come looking for her man after the shooting stops.»
«Jessi? Then that was Wolfe?»
Caleb grinned. «Sure was. Now, go on up to the marsh and wait for us. With Wolfe and a repeating rifle up on that rock preaching to them about the wages of sin, Slater’s boys will soon see the error of their ways. There will be a regular stampede of converts heading down the mountain.»
«I can help.»
«You sure can,» Caleb agreed. «You can get your rump up to the marsh and stay safe. If anything happens to you, no one would know where to look for Reno.»
«Then I’ll go back to the mine. He might be calling for me.»
«Don’t go inside that mine until I’m there,» Caleb said flatly.
Eve opened her mouth to argue.
«I mean it, Eve. I’ll tie you like a chicken for the spit if I have to.»
«But —»
«Get it through your head,» Caleb said roughly, overriding her attempts to speak. «Without you, we don’t have a chance in hell of helping Reno.»
Slowly Eve nodded and turned away, not even noticing the tears that were once again making silver trails through the dirt on her cheeks.
She was halfway up the cascade when Wolfe Lonetree opened up with his rifle. Shot after shot screamed through the high mountain air, echoing back from stone peaks. From below, other rifles returned fire in a crescendo of noise.
By the time Eve reached the marsh, the rifle shots were coming less frequently. As she climbed the second cascade, a six-gun opened up in measured intervals. Silence returned to the mountain before she reached the tiny valley that held the mine.
Caleb had been right. Slater’s gang hadn’t liked facing Wolfe Lonetree’s lethal skill with a rifle.
22
«You're not making sense,» Eve said flatly.
Hands on her hips, she faced the three hard-looking men and the slender red-headed woman who had gathered in front of the mine.
«You’re the one who isn’t making sense,» Caleb said. «First you were going to take on Slater’s bunch with a shotgun, and now you’re talking about going down alone into that hellhole and —»
«I went after Slater because I didn’t care if I killed some of his gang digging out Reno,» Eve interrupted. «You have a wife and child waiting for you.»
She turned to Wolfe. «And you have a wife right here who needs you. I’m the only one who knows how to get to Reno, and I don’t have a soul who looks to me for anything at all. Besides, there’s only room for one to dig at a time. When I can’t dig anymore, you can draw straws.»
As Eve spun around to go inside, a bullwhip snaked out and curled tightly around her knees, holding her in place without hurting her in the least.
«Wait up, miss. I’m going with you.»
Eve spun and confronted the big, blond man who smiled and spoke and moved so much like Reno, she could hardly bear to look at him. The color of the eyes was different, gray rather than green, but their catlike tilt and clarity were so similar, it was like a knife in her heart.